With the extensive application of mobile wireless communication technology the need for data cards that support various wireless access technologies has emerged. Examples of such data cards include a 3G data card and a 3G USB Modem. These data cards are also called mobile broadband devices.
In the conventional art, a data card may be used to access the Internet and run services through a process that mainly includes:
(1) Inserting the data card into a host, and mapping the data card into a storage device.
In the mapping step, a device descriptor that describes the data card as a storage device is reported to the host according to a USB protocol. After receiving the device descriptor, the host delivers a storage device initialization request to the data card. Once the data card performs initialization according to the initialization request it is mapped as a magnetic storage disk on the host.
(2) Installing a driver and PC client software.
To enable the data card to perform the specific functions, e.g. Internet access, that an OEM designed it for, a driver and PC client software need to be installed. The equipment vendor provides a dedicated driver and PC client software necessary to implement the functionality of the data card. The PC client software is a high-level application on the PC that provides an operating interface in order to enable services such as dial-up access, traffic statistics, short messaging, and phone books.
(3) Allowing the data card to switch into operating mode automatically, and be mapped into a functional device by the host. The term functional device refers to a device capable of completing some function, specifically the function for which the data card was designed by the OEM to perform. For example, such function could refer to an Internet access function.
(4) Allowing a user to enable Internet access by utilizing the dial-up services provided through the PC client software. The user may also perform other services as well as management tasks by running the PC client software in order to enable other functionality, for example, short message sending and receiving.
Currently, a majority of data cards have USB interfaces and fewer data cards use Express interfaces. As shown in FIG. 1, after the driver is run on the host, the modem may be mapped into a serial port. Thereafter, a PC client program is installed on the host and the PC client program provides the user with an operating interface, receives an operation instruction entered by the user, and performs information interaction with the data card through an AT command. The AT command implements services such as dial-up access, traffic statistics, short messaging, and phone books. The AT command is a standard modem interface protocol defined by the ITU-T.
One significant disadvantage of the conventional art is the substantial amount of time required to install the driver.
Before the data card can be used for the first time, a user must install the driver software provided by the equipment vendor. This driver installation process may take from one to five minutes or significantly longer if an OS needs to be restarted.